


Breaking

by NinaJoFoster



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Drug Use, Gen, Hallucinations, Mental Breakdown, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Original Character Death(s), Schizophrenia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:22:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23941498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NinaJoFoster/pseuds/NinaJoFoster
Summary: Spencer Reid has schizophrenia like his mom. However, he is misdiagnosed by a doctor with this having been side effects of his drug abuse. Things are great for a while when he returns to work with just little hiccups here and there. Reid tries to brush these little incidents aside but as he gets worse the incident start to affect his work and his team is concerned. Hotch wants to make him sit out the next case but he can’t cause JJ and Rossi are both sick and they can’t afford to be down three agents. So, he tells Reid to pull himself together. Little does he know that Reid is unraveling quickly.  Read to find out what happens next.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 22





	1. Chapter 1

Reid twists his hands around the handle of his duffel bag as he walks to the bus stop. He breathes out a sigh of relief as the hospital behind him gets further and further away. He has a few blocks to go and so he thinks back on his time in there.

* * *

After finding out his father did not murder one of his peers, Reid went to visit his mom. After a few hours he was leaving when he ran into Diana’s doctor. “Hey Dr. White,” Spencer greets her.

“Spencer I’ve told you that you can call me Cathy” She says smiling at him, Spencer blushes and shrugs and she continues, “So are you here to visit your mother?”

Reid is immediately confused, “I’m actually leaving, we were just talking for like three hours.” He points over to the lounge area where his mom is reading a book now.

Dr. White shakes her head, “No I was just in session with her and before that she was in her room. Now she is in art therapy.” She tells him matter-of-factly.

“How can that be I was just talking to her about the BAU and how my life is going. I told her I was seeking help for my addiction and she said she was proud of me” Spencer tells her getting quieter as he thinks back to the conversation. She did seem awfully quiet today he thinks to himself.

Dr. White is growing concerned now. “Dr. Reid are you feeling okay?”

Spencer looks startled by her question as if he forgot she was there and that they were talking. “Dr. White you scared me.” Spencer says with a small laugh.

This has the doctor even more concerned, but she does not push it. “Are you going home, Spencer?”

Reid nods and smiles “Yeah just had a great visit with my mom so I’m going to head to my hotel, and I’ll be back tomorrow before I head to the airport.” He informs her.

“Okay then, I’ll see you tomorrow” She says, and they walk in different directions the doctor really concerned about her patient’s son.

While he is walking out, Spence rolls his eyes at the sight of Tobias Hankel waiting for him at the door. “Leave me alone!” He orders clearly annoyed.

_“Aww, but why man? Aren’t we best friends?”_

Spence scoffs and continues to walk away, “Not even close, you got me addicted to dilaudid, remember?”

_“Now don’t be like that, you like it and you know it. In fact, you are gonna get high as soon as we get back to the hotel room, aren’t ya?” He laughs._

Spencer ignores him and shoves headphones in his ears and listens to his favorite Beethoven piece. The bus gets there, and Spencer gets on with Hankel following suit.

_“Are you seriously trying to ignore me?”_

Spencer shuts his eyes trying to block him out.

_“Come on you know that doesn’t work”_

Finally, Spencer has had enough, and he rips out his earphones stands up and screams, “Just shut the fuck up, asshole!” Everyone turns to look at him.

The guys sitting beside him jumps frightened but doesn’t let it show. “Chill man, I just asked what you were listening to, sorry.” He holds up his hands in surrender and gets up to move to a different seat.

_Tobias smirks and dissipates._

Spencer blushes and sits back down in his seat trying to keep a low profile. When he finally makes it to the stop close to his hotel, he gets annoyed when he sees Tobias following him again. Hankel doesn’t try to speak to him, yet. They make it up the stairs avoiding most people like that, and Reid unlocks the door. They enter and Reid throws his bag on the couch and calls the front desk to order room service. When that’s done, he finds the vial of his drug of choice from where he stuffed it under the mattress and draws some up into a needle. All the while Tobias is whispering in his ear to get more. Reid ignores him, tying the tourniquet around his bicep, and injecting himself with the drug.

A few minutes later a man delivers the food and when he opens the door, he spots Reid passed out on the floor with a needle in his arm. He calls 9-1-1 and then the front desk. When paramedics get there, they find he still has a slow heart rate and shallow breathing. They give him Narcan to counter act the effects of the drug. He wakes up briefly but not for long as he passes out again. They load him onto a stretcher and into the back of the ambulance and take him to the ER.

A few hours later Reid wakes up in the ER. “Where am I?” He asks but no one other than Tobias Hankel is there, and he keeps quiet. He looks around and notices he’s in a hospital room. Great he thinks to himself.

_“You fucked up Dr. Reid!” Hankel mocks him, with a small smirk._

“Shut up!” Reid tells him.

_“You just had to shoot up, didn’t you?” Tobias interrogates him. “You couldn’t have waited thirty more minutes and then you would have been in the clear.”_

Spencer grimaces but doesn’t look at him. A nurse comes in. “Good you’re awake. My name is Britney” She starts taking his vitals. “So how long have you been doing Dilaudid?” She questions him.

Spencer swallows, “A few months, but that was my first time in 3 weeks” She nods and gives him a pity look, Spencer hates getting that look.

“You know dilaudid is a hard one to come across, they’re are easier to come by drugs out there.” She states, curious.

Spencer get annoyed quickly, “I didn’t want to be an addict okay! It’s not my fault, I was kidnapped, and he injected me with it.” The nurse immediately regrets her words and doesn’t say anything else.

_“Yeah sure blame me.”_

“It was your fault you asshole!” Spencer yells at him. The nurse jumps.

“That was my fault?” She asks nicely. _“Yeah but I didn’t make you keep taking it after you got free.”_

“The fuck you didn’t, you won’t shut up until I do!” Spencer screams at him ignoring the nurse.

The nurse is overly concerned, “Sir, who are you talking to?” _Tobias rolls his eyes and gives Reid the middle finger before transforming into Diana Reid._

Upon seeing her Spence starts crying, “I’m so sorry mom, I tried to be strong, but he just won’t stop.”

The nurse stays quiet and hits the call button and approaches the bed. _“It’s okay Spencer, it’s not your fault. I still love you.” She kisses the top of his head and wraps him in a hug._

Spencer hugs her waist, which is really the nurse, and continues to cry. “I love you too, Mom.”

The nurse stands there shocked and raises her finger to her lips when another nurse comes in. The new nurse slowly and quietly makes her way over to them. “Go get psych.” Britney whispers in her ear. The other nurse nods and leaves.

With psych on the way, Spencer lets go of Britney’s waist and holds her hand instead. “Mom, who told you I was here and who brought you?

Britney stays quiet already working out that his delusion will answer him even if she wasn’t there _. “Dr. White, of course. Silly boy, who else?_ Spencer shrugs but doesn’t answer. A doctor from psych enters the room but Reid doesn’t acknowledge him.

“What going on?” He asks, taking in the joined hands.

Britney looks up, “He is experiencing some sort of delusion. I’m not sure if its from the drugs or not. First, he was screaming at somebody, and now he thinks his mother is here.” She explains.

The doctor frowns, “Well it could be the drug or something else. Hmm, as soon as he’s able to be moved I’d like for him to on the mental ward for observation. I’ll be able to better assess the situation up there.”

The ER doctor enters right then, “Well, Dr. Moore, he can go now, he’s physically stable and nothing is holding him here.” Spencer had zoned out now and had released Britney’s hand. “Britney please go ahead and roll Mr. Reid up there.” Britney nodded.

Dr. Moore held up his hand, “First, I’d like to give him a sedative, just in case.” The ER doctor nodded, and Britney went to get it. When she came back, she plunged to needle into his upper arm and Spencer was out like a light. Unknown to him, for the rest of the night.

Britney wheeled hi m up to the mental ward following Dr. Moore there. Spencer slept soundly, his dreams bouncing between his mom and Tobias Hankel.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Reid grimaces at the memory, he really blew he pooch on that one. He makes it to the bus stop and sets the duffel on the ground next to him. An older couple come up and Reid gets up so they can sit. “Well thank you son,” The man says, and the woman takes his hand gently with a soft smile and they sit down to wait for the bus. “So, where you going?”

Spencer is surprised but gives him a shrug and smile tugged on his lips. “I’m heading home.” He says with a curt nod. “Yeah, home.”

This time the woman speaks up. “And where’s home?”

“Quantico, Virginia”

“What are you doing way out here?”

“I had to stay out here for a while?” Spencer answers kind of wanting to tell them everything but holding back as well. Plus, why should they be subjected to his miserable life

“Why?”

“It’s a long story.” He says giving them an out but kind of hoping they don’t take it.

And they don’t let him down, “It’s a long way to Virginia, my boy.” The lady smiles and Reid reciprocates it.

“You’re going to Virginia as well?” The couple nods in perfect sync with each other. “Well it all started…” He tells them about the first day of a horrible year.

“Wow, that sounds bad,” The woman had her hand over her heart and the man was giving him an empathetic look. “What happened when you woke up?”

The bus pulls up, “Lets get on the bus first before I continue.” He grabs his duffel and they load on with Reid following suit. They take two seats near the middle and Spence takes the aisle seat directly across from them. They look at him expectedly and he lets out a soft chuckle. “Well when I woke up, I could tell I was in a different room and I also felt like my body wasn’t as close to the ground outside as before. The he walked in…”

Reid slowly opens his eyes a headache forming in the back of his mind. “Well I’m glad to see you awake, we were starting to get worried.” He states and sits in the chair next to my bed.

“Who are you?” Reid asks the stranger and then glances around the room, “And where is my mother?”

“Mr. Reid...” He starts but is cut off.

“It’s doctor, actually”

“I’m sorry?” He says as a question.

“Its not mister, its doctor, I have three PhD’s” Reid tells him. “Why am I here?”

“I am sorry, Mr. Reid,” He pauses to see if Reid will respond, he doesn’t but does bite his lip, trying and failing, to not look annoyed, the doctor continues, “I am Dr. Moore and I was the doctor who gave you a psych eval down in the ER. They said you were yelling at somebody who wasn’t there. Do you recall this?”

Reid thinks back and does remember the incident and he slowly nods not looking the doctor in the eye. Dr. Moore continues, “Okay, well then you were speaking to the nurse, who you thought was your mother.” Reid shakes his head and Moore is surprised.

“No, my mom was there, I talked to her. She told me Dr. White brought her.”

Its Moore’s’ turn to shake his head, “No, it was the nurse, you can ask her yourself sometime. But back to your mother,” he says not letting Spencer get in another denial. “What is her name?”

“Diana Reid, she is a patient at Behavioral Health Centers of America.” Moore nods, writing that down to try to get a hold of this Dr. White assuming they aren’t a part of this man’s delusions, “And why is she there?”

“She was diagnosed with schizophrenia not long after I was born, When I turned eighteen, I had her committed so I could live my life like she wanted for me.” Spencer says with a tear rolling down his face. After all these years, that is still his biggest regret.

“That must have been hard?” Moore says causing Reid to jump slightly as he forgot he was still in the room. Reid shrugs and wipes away his tears. “Spencer have you ever been test for schizophrenia?” Reid panics.

“No, I’m not crazy!” he shouts.

Moore doesn’t react badly and was expecting that kind of reaction from the boy, “Hey I wasn’t saying you are crazy, it’s just that it’s a well-known fact that schizophrenia can be passed down genetically.”

Reid visibly relaxes, “Did you know, having a first degree relative with schizophrenia is one of the greatest risks for the disorder. While the risk is 1 percent in the general population, having a first degree relative, such as a parent or sibling with schizophrenia increases the risk to 10 percent. The risk jumps to 50 percent if both parents have been diagnosed with schizophrenia, while the risk is 40 to 65 percent if an identical twin has been diagnosed with condition.” Reid starts spouting off and Dr. Moore is taken back so he just listens to the young doctor. “A 2017 study from Denmark based on nationwide data on over 30,000 twins estimates the heritability of schizophrenia at 79 percent. The study concluded that, based on the risk of 33 percent for identical twins, the vulnerability for schizophrenia isn’t solely based on genetic factors. Although the risk of schizophrenia is higher for family members, the Genetics Home Reference indicates that most people with a close relative with schizophrenia will not develop the disorder themselves.”

“Did you tell me all that just to make the point that because your mother has it you don’t?” Dr. Moore asks. Reid blushes and looks out the window choosing not to answer him with words. “I’ll take that as a yes, but you also just stated that you are at higher risk and you are also in the normal age range.”

“I know,” Spence says quietly, “I know.” Dr. Moore nods and continues getting a history from Spencer who answers all is answers truthfully. He is genuinely surprised when he learns of the kidnapping and subsequent drug abuse that followed that. He seemed impressed with the kid’s eidetic memory and high IQ. “Well, I believe I know what was causing the auditory and visual hallucinations, but just to be sure I’m going to get a CT scan to rule out a brain tumor.” Reid nodded and grimaced at the sight of Tobias in the corner. “Are you in pain?” Moore asked. Reid thought about telling him the truth but just thought it would confirm his theory that he was indeed crazy, so he just nodded. “Well you can’t have the strong stuff but ill get Nurse Jackie to get you some Tylenol.” And with that he left.

Reid lay on his bed and looks anywhere but at Hankel twiddling his thumbs. A nurse comes in and Reid stares at her. “Hi, Mr. Reid,”

“Dr. Reid” he says automatically

Jackie smiles, “Sorry, Dr. Reid, I have your medicine. Two 500 mg Tylenol here, “She hands it to him, and he downs it with a sip of water. “Okay open up” Knowing its standard to check to make sure he swallowed, he does so. She quickly looks and then smiles at him. Thank you, Dr. Reid.”

“You’re welcome,” His voice is gravelly.

“Well the radiologist will be up here soon to take you down.” Reid nods and decides to take a nap while he waits.

_“So, they saved your life, Doctor,”_

Reid rolls his eyes, “Yeah I understand that, the doctor thinks you are a symptom from the dilaudid.” He says trying to convince himself of it.

_Tobias shakes his head with a mocking look as Reid falls asleep._

The technician comes and wakes him up, Reid gets in the wheelchair and they roll him down to get a scan. After its over, Reid is taken back up with Hankel following every step of the way with a slight smirk on his face. Reid is allowed to sit in the lobby to watch TV. Really, he is ignoring Tobias who is whispering for himself to run away. The nurse takes note but writes it off as withdrawals.

Finally, Dr. Moore comes back with his scans, “Well the scans were clean, so you are good to go tomorrow. As for right now you are going to be moved down to the observation floor.”

Reid nods, “Um, can I call my boss, I was supposed to be back at work tomorrow.”

Dr. Moore is a bit surprised that Reid has a job but nods’ “Sure, after you move, you can. I am also am prescribing you some Methadone to help with the withdrawals.”

“No, I don’t want that, I was able to stop myself three weeks ago and survive. Its common knowledge that people can get addicted to that.”

“Okay but I’ll still prescribe it its up to you to decide to take it or not.” Reid relaxes, “Well let’s get you down to your new room.” The doctor grabbed the handles o the wheelchair.

When he got in his room, he pulls out his cell from his belongings, and calls Hotch. “Reid what’s up?”

“Hotch I won’t be able to come in tomorrow. I’m stuck in Las Vegas for a bit.”

“Is it your mom?” He asks with concerned laced in his voice.

“Y-yeah, yes its my mom.” Reid lies.

“Okay well, come as soon as you can.”

“I will Hotch, thanks.” Reid says and hangs up. He is extremely happy that today is a good day and that Hankel has bothered him too much today. He is tired so he climbs into bed and falls asleep.

“Wow, so that’s good right you got out today and are headed to work its was just your drug abuse, right?” The man asked.

“That’s what I tried to convince myself but no it went on much longer than that, but I did get to go back to work the next day.” Reid says but it got much worse.


	3. Chapter 3

“So, were you off to Quantico after you left the hospital?” The man asked Reid.

“No, I was headed to Texas, but first I went to see my mom and Dr. White, then I went to the airport.”

* * *

“Take off belts, shoes, and empty your pockets into a bin before going through the scanner!” A TSA agent yelled at the line of people at the security check. Reid was untying his shoes when Hankel appeared. “God, do you ever leave me alone?” Reid asked annoyed. The man behind him scowls but keeps his mouth shut.

_Tobias smiles, “Where’s the fun in that? Besides I’m here to help you.”_

“Help me do what exactly? Kill myself?” The people around him stare.

_“Well, that’s one thing but no, I’m here to help you with your day to day life.”_

“I don’t need your help, I do just fine without you.” Reid moves closer to the front of the line. People try not to stare but it getting harder as he gets louder.

_“Yeah, okay. Tell that to the Reid from last night who almost killed himself.”_

“That was your fault. You told me to take the drugs, if you hadn’t had been there, I’d still be sober.” Everyone is kind of getting nervous now as he has an argument with no one.

_“I don’t push the drugs into you myself, do I?”_

“You might as well because you did it the first time and, the second and, third. You stole me from my family and forced the drugs into my vein. Now leave me the fuck alone asshole. I’m done talking to you.” Reid spat at him and Hankel frowns but leaves for now. Reid lets out a sigh and he’s at the front.

“Is something wrong sir?” The TSA woman asks and Reid blushes, trying to come up with a believable lie. He clearly doesn’t have an earpiece in so he can’t say he was talking on the phone.

Then it comes to him, “Oh, I’m sorry. I was practicing lines for a play I’m in. I didn’t realize I was getting so loud.” He apologizes.

The agent doesn’t look convinced but the man behind him laughs. “Well, you are damn good. I thought you were arguing with me for real. You should go to Hollywood.”

“Thanks.” Reid keeps it short and goes through the x-ray machine. After, he gathers his stuff and makes his way to the gate. Pulling out his badge he is able to load early and try to catch up on the case the team is currently on. He is going to meet them in the field.

The unsub is taking women from their homes in the middle of the night, driving them to an abandoned shack out in the middle of nowhere, and raping them. Then he knocks them out and leaves. When they wake up, they travel, on foot, to a very small town. Right now, there are ten victims. All have blue eyes and red hair, a very rare combination for the area. Reid looks at where they were living and finds that they lived all over the map. This is gonna be a fun one, he thinks sarcastically. He runs his hand through his hair and sighs, setting the file down. At some point during the flight Hankel sat beside him but didn’t say anything.

When they landed, Reid headed to Gastrow, Texas. He finally makes it and he easily spots JJ talking to someone. He doesn’t recognize the woman so he’s hoping it’s a victim’s family or a friend and not a new victim. “I’m so sorry ma’am but we will try to find your daughter.” Reid hears her say. The woman nods and wipes her eyes with a tissue before standing and giving JJ a hug. JJ is clearly surprised but returns it before they release each other and make their way from the room. JJ watches her leave and then turns to see Reid; she rushes over too him going to give him a hug but he dodges it and JJ puts her arms down pretending it didn’t happen. “Is your mom okay? Hotch told us that you had to stay cause something happened to her.” JJ informs him.

Reid debates telling her the truth because they will find out eventually but, he doesn’t want to be the center of attention until he has to be so he keeps lying. “Oh, yeah, she had a bad spell so the doctor asked me to stay to help ground her.” JJ gives him a sympathetic look and he is happy he decided to withhold the truth. “But she is good now.” He told her quickly.

“Well, I’m glad. And I’m glad you’re here this case is kicking our ass. We were hoping that you can find something none of our brains can see.” She said giving him a off handed compliment knowing his brain works a bit different than theirs.

“Well I didn’t have all the evidence with me on the plane though Hotch did send me the file, so let me take a look at everything and I’ll get back to you.” He said giving her a smile. She nods and starts walking to the room the local police gave them to work in.

Reid makes quick work of laying out all the evidence to see if he could make sense of all the evidence they had, or lack thereof. With each new victim since the team has been in town, they check out the shed but are disappointed in not being able to retain any evidence at all. This leaves Reid thinking the guy could have a background in the military or in criminal justice. 

He poured over the evidence until the early hours of the morning but still couldn’t come up with a solution. Hankel yammering away in the corner, to himself wasn’t helping the matter either. What was puzzling him is how the unsub was still using the shed without detection as the local police had it under surveillance. Maybe the dilaudid was messing with his brain.

 _“Think about it, who is able to have unlimited access to the shed without fear of being detected?” Hankel asked him._ Then it clicked it had to be one of them how else would they be getting away with it. He dialed Garcia’s number.

“Hey Boy Wonder you’re there.” Garcia answered lively as ever. “Is your mom okay? Are you okay? I saw you were admitted to the hospital.”

Spencer cringes and Hankel, who had never left after showing up on the plane, smirked. “Garcia I’m fine just a bout of dehydration, it was nothing, and you keep this between us?”

“Sure thing, Junior G-man, anyway what can I do you for?”

Grateful for the change in subject he relaxed a bit, “I need you to pull up a log of all the cops that have been surveilling the shed where the girls wake up.”

“Okay,” He hears typing and then silence before she answers, “You’re gonna have to give me more parameters to work with, almost all the cops have done it.”

“This one would show up on the list over three times, also look for anytime they weren’t scheduled to be there but were.”

More clicking of keys, “That still leaves me with ten names, anything else?”

Reid thinks for a minute but comes up blank. “Not right now, send me your list and run a background on all of them and call with your results.”

“Should be on your tablet now, sherlock and I sent it to the rest of the team as well. Adios!”

Reid was putting away his phone and looking at the list when Hotch, Morgan, and Rossi walked in. “Hey, Pretty Boy, are you sure about this?” Morgan asked holding up his tablet.

“Yeah, it’s the only thing that makes sense, how he’s able to keep going there despite the surveillance and the lack of evidence he leaves behind.” Reid said completely sure of himself.

“If that’s the case we can’t really trust the police to want to catch him.” Rossi commented.

Hotch agreed, “Alright, we will tell the chief that we will take over the surveillance because we want to help. Then we can gauge how the deputies respond and who seems relieved and annoyed at our interference. Morgan you and Prentiss can handle that. Reid, I want you and JJ to try to narrow down this list. Rossi and I will talk to the chief.” Reid nods at his assignment and takes another look at the list and pales.

“Hotch, I don’t think talking to the chief is a good idea, his name is second on the list.” Hotch looks and nods okay well then we won’t we’ll just say we got an anonymous tip and that we need to take more control so nobody else gets hurt.”

Morgan goes to find Emily and, Hotch and Rossi head to the chief’s office. JJ walks in and is talking to someone on the phone, just above a whisper. When the door shuts behind her, she put the phone on speaker. “Reid’s here Garcia go ahead.”

“Okay, so I was running a background check on them and they are all clean except for a couple of minor infractions here and there in their youth on some of them, but the chief is a doozy. He has several counts of sexual harassment through out middle and high school. In college he was almost charged with rape but they were dropped when the victim failed to show up to testify.”

“Well, that shows a pattern but it doesn’t make him our unsub.” Reid said.

“True, but after finding that I dug even further back and I found out when he was a child, he had to see a therapist after a teacher had been caught touching him. He was seven. And get this she had red hair and blue eyes.”

JJ shook her head. “Okay thanks Garcia.” She hung up the phone and they went to go find Hotch. Pulling him into a private room they told him everything and they made a plan.

Reid went back to his hotel room to get a nap before the plan was set into motion later. Hotch had told the chief that since the surveillance hadn’t done any good that the officers should take a rest and that they catch up in the morning and try something else.

In reality, him, Morgan and Prentiss would be watching the place to catch the chief, who would surely take his latest victim there tonight. So, Aaron had told them to go get some rest before tonight. So, Reid was left alone in the room with just Hankel and an itch to take a hit of dilaudid.

“I have to work later.” He argued.

_“You’ll be fine to work, its just a little bit to get you to sleep so you’ll be sharp for the take-down.” Hankel coaxed him, holding out the needle._

Reid huffed but didn’t argue further because in truth he could feel his hunger for it and he didn’t want to go without it. So, without another word he pulled up his sleeve and injected himself once again. He pulled out the needle and hid it in his bag before slipping into wonderful bliss.

 _“There you go, Reid, just what the doctor ordered.”_ He heard Hankel say before drifting into a dreamless slumber.

Hours later he awoke to his phone ringing, groaning he reached into his pocket for it but was too late and missed the call. He squinted and jumped up when he saw he had several missed calls from Morgan and angry texts from Emily. Looking at the time he found it to be the next day. “Shit!” He exclaimed before quickly dialing Morgan.

“Where are you, kid?” Morgan asked in an angry but hushed tone.

“I’m sorry, I fell asleep and I must have forgot to set my alarm and my phone volume was turned down.” Reid lied easily. He ignored Tobias sitting on the bed with an amused expression. “Did we catch him?”

Morgan sighed and seemed to calm down, “Yeah we got him, he showed up just like we though he would.”

“Good, good.” Reid said relieved that his carelessness hadn’t messed up the plan. “Am I in trouble?”

“No, we covered for you. We told Hotch that you weren’t feeling good and decided to sit this one out.”

“Thanks,” He said and sighed, “and Morgan, I owe you one.”

“No kidding Pretty Boy,” Morgan said with a smile in his voice, at least he wasn’t angry anymore. “Me and Prentiss”

Reid smiled as well, “Yes, and Prentiss.

“Well we are meeting at the jet in an hour so see you there.” Derek hung up and Reid let out a huff.

_“Looks like you’re off the hook, this time.”_

“Yeah, this time but what about next? I can’t do this while o the job. It’s too risky.”

_“Sure you can, just not when you have to go into the field.” Hankel said, starting to help spencer, who had begun to pack his bag. “Anyway, aren’t you going to thank me?”_

“Thank you?” Reid questioned, “Thank you for what?”

_“If it hadn’t had been for me, you would never have figured out it was the chief, I’m the one who pointed it out.” He said as if Reid’s find was his._

“I would have figured out eventually.” Reid defended, grabbing his go bag and heading to the lobby.

_“Maybe but not as quickly if I hadn’t pointed it out.”_

Spencer had no argument for that so he sighed and relented, “Thank you, I guess.”

The man behind the desk gave him an evil glare and Spencer and Hankel left out the doors. _“You’re welcome.” He said smugly._ They drove to the jet in silence.

When they got there everyone was asking if he was okay and he assured them he was and that he must have caught a bug in Las Vegas or something. He threw Morgan and Emily a grateful look and lay down on the couch to get some more sleep. He was exhausted.

* * *

“So, your delusion helped you sort of?” The woman asked him.

Reid shrugged, “I guess, in a way, but I still hated him for what he did to me.”

“It’s okay son, just because he was helpful once doesn’t mean you had to stop hating him.” The man told him patting his arm.

“He seemed to think I should, and I guess I eventually did and I started to rely on him.” The pair gave him an empathetic look and then the man yawned.

“Can we continue the story in the morning? I need some shut eye.”

Reid smiled and nodded noting his own tiredness. “Come to think of it, I could too. See you in the morning.” They bid each other goodnight and Reid leaned his seat back before drifting off.


End file.
